Sambar Sadam Recipe | Sambar Rice Recipe (Rice Cooker Recipes)

Sambar rice made in rice cooker is an easy one-pot weeknight dinner for us on many days of the month. I posted a poll on the sidebar a few months back asking if you had a rice cooker or not. More than 70% came back with a yes. Well, I have one too and I hardly ever make anything in it apart from rice, which is inexcusable because there's so much more you can do with a rice cooker.

If you like easy rice recipes, some of my favourite recommendations are - South Indian lemon rice, paneer and peas pulao, and this easy vegetable pulao made in a rice cooker too. 

So I am starting a mini-series in here featuring rice cooker recipes. If you have a favourite, please leave a comment, I'd love to try it.

My rice cooker is a Zojirushi 5.5 cup induction cooker which I bought from Tokyo. Frustratingly, it was more expensive than Amazon and in-store in Singapore but I like to believe it's worth it. It does cook rice perfectly each time and by perfectly, I mean it's fluffy and soft and unlike any other rice I've cooked using any other method. Anyway, more on that in a review soon.

Sambar Rice (Sambar Sadam) in a Rice Cooker

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
¾ cup of toor dal, soaked for 30 mins in warm water
1 carrot, sliced
10 green beans, sliced
12 shallots (or 1 large onion)
2 tablespoon of sambar powder
2 tablespoon of oil
½ teaspoon of cumin / jeera
¼ teaspoon of mustard seeds
¼ teaspoon of hing powder (asafoetida)
1 stalk of curry leaves
Salt to taste
1 lemon-sized ball of tamarind
1 + 2.5 cups of water
A small bunch of chopped coriander leaves, for garnishing

Instructions:

0. Soak the tamarind in the 1 cup water for 10 mins. Extract juice and discard pulp.

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and cumin. When the mustard seeds pop and the cumin seeds turn a golden brown, add the hing. Fry for 5 seconds.

2. Add the shallots immediately after and fry for 2 mins.

3. Add the vegetables .Stir to combine well and let it cook for 5 mins until they begin to soften.

4. Top up with the sambar powder and curry leaves.

5. Mix well and let it cook for another 5 mins, stirring once or twice in between. Turn off flame.

6. Wash and rinse the rice and add to the rice cooker bowl...

... followed by the soaked toor dal

... and the cooked vegetables, water, tamarind extract, and salt

7. Mix well and cook per your rice cooker instructions. Mine is an induction cooker so it takes longer to cook the rice than regular rice cookers.

Voila! Rice cooker sambar sadam is ready.

Garnish, mix, and serve hot with curd, chips, and pickle.

Notes:

- You can add vegetables of your choice or none, if that's what you prefer. I like to make it a balanced one-pot meal so I add whatever vegetables I have in hand. The shallots or onions are a must-add though

- Soaking the toor dal helps make it mushier in the rice cooker. Mine doesn't cook dals to a mush so I have to help it along. If you want super mushy sambar rice, add more water and soak the dal longer, or cook in pressure cooker before adding to the rice cooker. That would make the process much longer though, obviously

- You can do the initial sauteeing in the rice cooker bowl itself, once it's heated up. I haven't tried this since mine is an induction cooker and takes a while to heat up. Let me know if you try it this way in yours

- Adding salt to the uncooked rice and dal may make it tougher to cook to a mush. Try adding salt after the dish is done. I will try this next time and see if it makes a difference